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15. Reinforced concrete construction has been developed
largely since the passing of the principal Ordinance. The
second object of this Ordinance is to deal with that method
of construction and with its relation to the questions of
public safety and public health.
16. Section 4 of this Ordinance amends the definition
of exceptional building in paragraph (25) of section 6 of
the principal Ordinance. The principal change in the defini-
tion is that buildings made wholly or partly of reinforced
concrete are specifically referred to. They were probably
included in the former definition under the words "every
building of glass, iron or other material not provided for
in this Ordinance", but it seems desirable to refer expressly
to this particular form of constructionwhich has come into
prominence in recent years. It is also provided in the new
definition that the term exceptional building shall include
every part of every building which is an exceptional building
within the meaning of the first part of the definition.
17. Sections 97 and 98 of the principal Ordinance were
unsatisfactory. In the first place section 97 gave the
A.
Building Authority/certain discretion with regard to every
exceptional building, while 98 gave him a wide discretion with
regard to a particular class of exceptional building. Again,
it might have been argued that section 97 referred only to the
general public, though it is obvious that the safety of a
building might be of little importance to the public at large
but of great importance to the persons using the building, e.g.,
the employees in a factory. Accordingly, section 7 of this
Ordinance substitutes for section 97 of the principal Ordi-
nance a section which gives the Building Authority discretion